Writing Shotgun

LAYOFFS AT LB MUSEUM OF ART; DIRECTOR BLAMES CITY BUDGET CUTS

Dave WielengaThu. November 12
 

An administrative assistant and a chef were laid off by the Long Beach Museum of Art this morning, The District Weekly has learned, and in a brief interview executive director Ron Nelson blamed an economic squeeze exacerbated by a reduction in funding by the City Council.

“Art institutions across the country are struggling with a difficult economic atmosphere,” said Nelson, speaking hurriedly while a group of museum supporters waited outside for him to join them on a day trip to the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. “But we are also dealing with our own especially difficult circumstances.”

Asked if he was referring to the City Council’s ratification in September of a 2009-2010 budget that reduced the contribution of local taxpayers to $165,000, Nelson replied: “Exactly.”

This is quite a hit; the city’s annual subsidy to the Museum Foundation has been well north of $300,000 throughout the 2000s—rising to $569,000 in the 2007 Fiscal Year, according to an August 2008 Inventory Audit of the Museum, performed by the City Auditor.

However, the layoffs come in areas—its fundraising arm, and in its popular waterfront restaurant, Claire’s at the Museum—that would seem to inhibit the Museum’s ability to recover from its economic problems. The departure of the administrative assistant, Margie Butler-Hill, appears to be an especially hard blow to operations.

“I expect we’ll be able to distribute these areas of responsibility among other staff,” said Nelson. “This was not something we wanted to do and it was not an easy task, but trust that many things were considered before the decision was made to lay off employees.”

The reduction of city support to the publicly owned but privately run Museum came in the wake of the Museum Foundation’s announcement in September that it would not repay taxpayers a $3 million debt bond that was undersigned by the city in 1999 to fund an expansion of facilities.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

  • Banana Rama
    "...but trust that many things were considered before the decision was made to lay off employees."

    Like what?

    Did the director take a pay cut? Have they instituted furlough days? Maybe so, but I doubt it. In these economic times, laying off employees is the worst thing you could do. The Long Beach Museum is an important institution in the City, sounds like a new leader is needed more than anything.
  • TheCommish
    One wonders if the board cares that the director is off on a day-trip to the Bowers Museum instead of working to solve the financial problems he's faced with. With a skeleton staff on board, he should be helping with those "areas of responsibility" he's distributed among the staff. Can anyone there cook an omelet and run a membership program at the same time?
  • pleasehold
    Of Course! Ron says everyone is replacable... He gives no direction and seems to have the board distracted... I've for years wondered how he has gotten away with his lack of Business skills... Firing Managers, dedicated managers due to budget is the stupidest excuse when both departments are the money generating departments... I'm sure the clients that have booked their special events were not notified that the Executive chef who developed their menu is no longer there! Clients are not treated like clients unless they are ron's friends.... And as far as membership department goes... the position should have been a weekend sales position... the Museum's volume is at it's peak do to the cafe business on the weekends.... It's not a mon thru friday position... It's a sales position....Hmmmmm The truth is these poor employee's probably looked at Ron or Megan (ass Sistant) funny or said the true in a meeting... Ron loves the true and Megan loves to wear big boots!!!!! LOL

    Sincerely,

    Been there!
  • howardx
    oh no! not the chef! stupid elitist bastards.
  • Dave Wielenga
    As I understand it, the chef is the backbone of the museum's restaurant, which brings in money. So maybe not so elitist.
  • howardx
    im sure they can muddle through with just a cook or two.
  • Let them eat cake!
  • lbresident
    Can't believe they are crying about the city cuts to subsidies after the way they have treated the taxpayers.
  • The Toad
    The Mayor and Council should have zeroed the city's funding for the museum after the way we got treated as taxpayers.
  • Mike Ruehle
    Is there a difference between the museum and Lehman Brothers?
  • The Toad
    Well duh, yeah; "we" are suing Lehman Brothers.
  • Mike Ruehle
    On one hand taxpayers are paying money to sue a non-existant company to TRY (get in a long line) to recover money they lost on their short term investment.

    On the other hand, taxpayers are still paying money to support a company that defalted on its bond payment leaving those taxpayers holding the bag.

    In both cases, City Council approved continuing to spend taxpayers money on a bad investment. In both cases, there is little hope of a return.

    In both cases, huge sums ($20 million & $3 million) of taxpayers money was lost with not a single person held accountable. I'm not sure I'm seeing a big difference.
  • The Toad
    Mike, Mike, Mike--Where is your faith in the great, all-knowing City Attorney? He says "we" have excellent chances of recovering our $ from Lehman Bros. Too bad that he doesn't have to bet his re-election on that outcome.
  • Mike Ruehle
    Is that like the million dollars of taxpayers money that City Attorney Shannon has already spent hiring legal defense for the city in its donning and doffing law suit with the police officers? How much confidence do you have that after spending all of this taxpayers money that the city will not be forced to fork over an additional $50 million? Based upon the City Attorney's track record with Lobstergate, Donning and Doffing, the Queen Mary and others, what would cause you to believe the city will recover a dime from Lehman Brothers? The Lehman Brother's law suit is all show. Its all a smoke screen in hopes taxpayers will forget about it. After claiming to work on it for several years, it will quietly be put to rest without ever accomplishing what was told to the public.
  • Looks like its time for the true LB patrons of the arts to start coughing up the cash.

    Remember that hideous giant yellow baby a while back? Just think, you can finance some more art displays like that!
  • Dave Wielenga
    Hey, I liked the Big Yellow Baby ... a lot!
  • Sam_Lowry
    Big Yellow Baby appreciation is directly proportionate to its distance from one's residence.
  • Dave Wielenga
    Then again, I live on a busy truck route. I'll take a big yellow baby over a set of diesel doubles any day.
  • Mike Ruehle
    I'm not sure it could be considered art. It was more like the union of Paul Bunyon and Babe the blue ox.
  • howardx
    we called it "bobby hill"
  • DWR
    I liked the hideous yellow baby too.
  • In truth, there were days that I found it charming, and other days when I found it to be the visual equivalent of nails on a chalkboard.
  • johnnyswanson
    Ron Nelsom took the job at the Museum, when no one wanted it. He has faithfully tried to run it to the best of his ability under the guidlines and influence of our so called City Leaders. Who obviously haven't helped much. So don't blame the messenger, blame the so called leaders who got us into this mess.
  • howardx
    pay the LB taxpayers back and then you can whine and snivel about the bad coverage.
  • who's the elitist and why are they stupid? is there anything new in this scenario?
blog comments powered by Disqus
 

© 2007-2008 Seven Days Publishing LLC.